BJP for division of Andhra Pradesh, not division of people

Patna: Charging the Congress with trying to create a divide among the people of Andhra Pradesh over the burning Telangana statehood issue, the BJP on Friday said that it favoured division of the state but not of its people.

"We want division of Andhra Pradesh, but not the division of people," senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu told reporters in reply to a question. The Congress has been meddling in the internal affairs of Andhra Pradesh for over nine-and-a-half years and trying to create a fissure among the people on the Telangana statehood issue," the former BJP national president said.

The Congress-led UPA government should have done its homework to address the nitty-gritty of the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh and address reservations of the people of both Telangana and Seemandhra regions during all these years, Naidu, himself a senior leader from Andhra Pradesh, said.

Stating that the BJP stands firmly in favour of carving out Telangana state from Andhra Pradesh, he asked the Congress to spell out the road map for bifurcation which, he alleged, that the main ruling party at the centre has not done till now. On the fodder scam, Naidu hailed the CBI special court judgement in the multi-crore fodder scam case convicting the RJD supremo to five years imprisonment and called for constitution of fast track courts for expeditious trial of the cases of scams and corruption involving political leaders.

Assailing the UPA government for using the CBI to delay trial of many scams and corruption cases to give a lease of life to some allies, he said that the central agency should be allowed a free run to prosecution tainted politicians and other accused persons. Saying that the Congress-led UPA government has become a 'lame duck' one which is not in the country's interest any more, Naidu demanded Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to resign and seek fresh mandate.